[SOLVED] Is there an easy way to tell if a laptop has USB-C charging?
Background:
I've been using a 9-year-old 13.3 inch Dell Latitude 7370 laptop running MX Linux to stream games via Moonlight from a beefier desktop machine. It is SO good and works flawlessly. My only complaint is the smaller screen size.
I would like to upgrade to a larger computer, and given that the computer will literally only be used for streaming games, it doesn't need to have great stats. I'm looking at used/refurbished models -- both for price and because buying something new feels like complete overkill for my needs.
My only requirements are:
- 17 inch screen
- USB-C charging
That's it! I'm assuming that literally anything I can get with that will work for what I need given that my small, decade-old laptop is already doing the same job perfectly. USB-C charging is a must-have for me. I already have USB-C power cords in all the places I plan on using it, and I don't want to have to use a separate charger for it.
My Situation:
Because I'm searching for used/refurbished models, I'm limited to what's available rather than going for any specific model of computer. I can easily find listings for computers with 17 inch screens. What I can't find easily is whether or not they support USB-C charging. Most sites don't have a filter for that, and a lot of the listings don't specify the type of charger used and just list "AC adapter" (or don't mention it at all). Many sites don't have pictures of the ports, or the pictures they do have are stock photos that aren't of the exact model.
Is there some easy way to find these that I'm missing? Some keyword, or a site that does have a filter for that, or brand knowledge that can point me in the right direction?
Also, if anyone has any recommended sites for used/refurbished laptops, let me know. I have had success with Backmarket for used tech before, but I'm open to recommendations.
Keyword I'd look for is USB Power Delivery or PD.
The manual will tell you. As @1338 mentioned, look for USB Power Delivery/PD on one of the ports. Usually you can find a user manual for most laptops online, even if they're very new.
Solved! Thanks for this knocklessmonster and @1338. I was looking for "USB-C charging" not "USB Power Delivery."
Also, the tip on looking up the official manual was great. Way better than trying to zoom in on stock photos and make assumptions.
I think basically all laptops that have USB c should be able to charge from USB c. You sometimes get laptops that can charge, but not at the full rate. For example, modern MacBook Pro charge at 140w with MagSafe or 100w with USB c. This could be an issue if you max out the processor and it can’t keep up. But for your use case, you won’t be using even a fraction of the processor, so that won’t be an issue.
Personally, I have never seen or heard of a laptop that can’t charge from all of its USB c ports. (Now someone is going to speak up and prove me wrong. Actually I am curious: are there any ?)
Edit: I expected this response, but I was surprised at how many instances there were. Come on laptop manufacturers, get with the game. If there is a USB C shaped hole on it, I should be able to charge with that hole, even if it is at a reduced speed.
I had a System76 laptop that had two USB C ports (one was actually Thunderbolt) and only one was designated for charging.
The Lenovo I'm typing this on has a USB-C but doesn't support charging the laptop through it at all. It's about 5-6 years old so probably at the upper end of what you'd be considering in a used model. It's relatively recent that PD supported sufficient wattage and then that hardware became ubiquitous compared to when USB-C first appeared.
I have an old XPS 13 which can charge from USB C but it does have the edge case of only doing so when there is already charge in the battery - if you run it down to dead flat you must have the dedicated charger or you're not going to get anywhere.
I had an Asus Transformer 2 in 1 (running Windows) that had USB-C, but still charged through micro USB only.
My current Zephyrus G14 also only supports USB-C charging through one of its ports, does not support passthrough (so no using it while charging on USB-C, only the full barrel port adapter), and relatedly, only supports a max of 100W through the USB-C port (the barrel port adapter supports up to 240W, and I'm pretty sure it comes close when gaming since the dGPU has a max power draw of 90W alone).
It'll work in a pinch when traveling (and not doing anything but the lightest of gaming), but it's not reliable for regular use.
However, I think most of that is a limitation of gaming laptops in particular-- my partner has a Lenovo Thinkpad that came with a stock 45W USB-C charger, and that is the only means of charging said laptop. It still will only charge off of one of the ports, though.
The school I teach at gives us Lenovo laptops, the lightweight Yoga ones only have one USB C port that supports charging, and the beefier ones don't support charging through their USB C ports at all, and these are up to date models.
Hey! I'll be that guy! I've never had a laptop capable of charging via USB-C even though I buy a new one every 3ish years.
My last laptop was a HP ZBook X360 whose power adapter was 120W. It had a USBC-PD port capable of delivering 100W, but charging was disabled due to 120 > 100. The one before it was a Zbook Studio G3, which also didn't support it, though that was before it was common to use USB-C to charge things as big as laptops.
My current laptop is a Lenovo P15 Gen2. Its power adapter is 240W, so again, it won't charge via any of its USBC ports, even though it pretty much never takes more than 60W unless I'm doing 4k gaming.
The caveat here is I buy stupid overpowered business workstation laptops cause they're really cheap as refurbs.
USB c PD can actually support up to 240w, so it would in theory be possible to charge from USB. Although that is a relatively recent addition to the spec.
This one is actually the most surprising to me. I didn’t think most laptops bother allowing output at 100w, since it isn’t required. 100w output and no input is a really weird set of design decisions, in my opinion.
If you happen to stumble upon an otherwise perfect laptop that doesn't have USB-C charging, you can get adapters* to plug into the barrel jack and convert it to USB-C PD.
Not the most elegant, so other answers are probably more relevant, but it's an option that exists if you need it.
*Just an example of what I'm talking about, I can't vouch for whether those ones in particular are any good or not.
I’m not sure what year models specifically to look for to get USB-C charging, but this use case might be uniquely suited to the 17” variant of LG’s Gram line of laptops, which is unique in that it’s a 17” thin and light. Kind of like if there were a 17” MacBook Air. Should have more than enough horsepower without the weight and bulk usually associated with that size class of laptop.
In case anyone's curious, I ended up getting a Dell Latitude 7773 2-in-1 from eBay for ~$450 USD. It came in today! I'm typing this on it right now, while it's charging from my Steam Deck USB-C power cable. 😁
I use Pop!_OS (with GNOME, soon to be COSMIC) on my main machine, and my previous streaming laptop had MX Linux with KDE. I wanted to try Cinnamon, so I installed Linux Mint on this. Very impressed! Cinnamon looks great at first glance. Aesthetically I like it most of the three, but workflow-wise I'm still partial to Pop!_OS's auto-tiling. Given that this is really only going to be used for streaming games, however, I don't need to worry too much about that.
Thanks to all that helped me out! I'm very happy with my purchase and am going to get a lot of mileage out of it.
Kind of an offhand idea, but I do wonder if you could buy something like a portable monitor and then hook it up via your Phone and stream to Moonlight from there. Then just attach a Bluetooth gamepad to your phone and you're (theoretically) off to the races.
I don't have a portable monitor, so I'm unable to test such a thing. If it worked, it'd be a cheap alternative and no need to have a full blown laptop to act as just a streaming machine.
Also, I do believe anything with a USB-C port can charge off of it. It just depends on how much juice you're needing. I have a thin and light ultrabook that charges exclusively off USB-C power, as it only needs 65w to charge, but I have another, considerably more powerful ultrabook that will charge off a 65w USB-C, but will throttle itself heavily and possibly lose battery (just slower) with such a low power charger. It comes with it's own 230w proprietary charger as standard.